Camping in the mountains ⛰
November 29, 2020 Morning
Big Red’s DIC says this morning was only 21 degrees before sunrise. 🌡️I’d believe it, kind icy outside with all of the fog 🌫 and moisture from yesterday’s rain and sleet turning into ice on the trees. It’s pretty and the road is free of ice so no complaints. I did start the truck up briefly to top off the batteries 🔋 – mostly the starting battery because it is cold and the voltage was down a little bit because of that – and the solar panel isn’t going to produce much power covered with ice. ☀️
Ran out of propane this morning ♨ but fortunately not before I cooked breakfast and warmed myself by the heater. But it still left me with cold hands 👐🏻 when I took down camp and gave me an incentive to get moving sooner. 🌅 Sun didn’t get above the mountains until after 8 AM which is about the time the tank ran out. Totally my fault, it had been nine nights since I last filled the tank and in the winter I usually try to fill it every six nights camping so I don’t end up with a cold start to the morning. ☕ But regardless it was fine, I enjoyed my coffee and just got moving.
Hiked up to House Pond this morning after I took down camp. 🦆 Woodpeckers and a duck breaking through the ice and the occasional distant gun shot 🔫 but no deer 🦌 to be seen where I was. I am surprised 🤨 I thought more would be moving this morning. Once I get back to camp, I’m going to drive down to Fort Hunter and explore the Schoharie Crossing and the bike path 🚲 around Fort Hunter until around 3:30 and then head home before dark. That’s pretty early this time of year.
November 29, 2020 Morning
Good morning folks! 😊I hope your Saturday is going well and you are healthy. This morning started out with rain ☔ and now it’s been breaks of sunshine ☀ and blue skies but mostly pretty gray. ☁️ Definitely late November here in the woods although it’s pretty nice sitting down by the heater. A little bit of sunshine though could go a long ways. I heard later it was supposed to clear out.
I have to say it is kind of cold and damp morning ♨ and it would have been downright chilly if not for the Big Buddy Heater to warm myself. 🔥 I guess I could have started a fire to warm myself but fires are smoky and smelly compared to sitting by the heater which you just switch on.
Last night that lantern 🏮 was super bright 🔆 except at the lowest setting. I’m hoping with the propane filter on it the preformance will remain high and not super smokey or dim. I think it’s the plasticizers on the propane hose that clog things up. I am hoping between using the propane tree and the filter I will have years of bright light as neccesary here at camp.
I am thinking that it will clear out later in the day 🌤️and I’ll hike up to the Potholers. After looking at the forecast yesterday I don’t have any great expectations for today but it’s good to get away, if only because it means I’m fully off the internet for a few days.
Ten o’clock in the woods is late in December 🕒
Ten o’clock in the woods is late in December 🕒
With dusk before five o’clock, by the time ten o’clock rolls around its already been five hours of darkness. In contrast, five hours after dusk in June is 2 am in the morning.
November 28, 2020 Evening
Today was a rather cloudy day with times of rain and sleet. ☁️ I hiked the whole section of Piseco Powley Road from the Potholers down to the bridge and checked out the repairs. The road is back in the shape the way it was before the Halloween 2019 storm – just a dirt road in the Adirondacks. Nothing really special.
We had some sun today but it was very fleeting. 🌤️ Maybe the solar panel generated fifty watts if that. I did turn on the truck for ten minutes to top off the batteries for a bit after the low voltage disconnect shut off the lights but ultimately I killed most of the lights to save power. 🔋 Nice moonlit evening, 🌕 I’d rather enjoy the moonlit woods by the light of the fire then artificial light. 💡
With the nights as long as they are 🔥 I tend to burn through quite a bit of wood but the result is by nine o’clock I usually have a pretty warm bed of coals go sit by without adding more wood. And I think I prefer the warm bed of coals on such a chilly but moon lit night.
I totally wished for a while today that I had pitched a tent ⛺ and could have hot tented with the book 📙 I was reading. But I didn’t want to get the tent soaked and have to dry it out when I got home.
Very Winter Looking Campsite Along East Canada Creek
October 21, 2020 Morning
Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Next Wednesday is Average High is 55 🍂. Mostly cloudy and 55 degrees in Delmar, NY. ☁ There is a south-southeast breeze at 6 mph. 🍃. The dew point is 54 degrees. The skies will clear around 11 am.
Should be a really nice day but with the dark and gray morning before the time change, 🌫️ I woke up so groggy and struggled to get going. 😴 I don’t think I’m sick but I’m just kind of worn out about the go go go work schedule, although at least I’m still working remotely. No Zoom Meetings today so I’ll work at home using my phone or laptop. 🤓That said, if it’s really nice out, I might bring my personal laptop down to the library to work and play a bit. 💻
Pancakes 🥞 for breakfast today but it was kind of a working breakfast 🖥️☕ having my coffee while replying to work emails 📧. But it was totally my fault for staying in bed much too late 🛏 before getting started on my day. It’s going to tonight when I’m working at work every day.
Today will be partly sunny 🌞, with a high of 74 degrees at 3pm. 16 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around September 12th. Maximum dew point of 61 at 12pm. South wind 6 to 13 mph. A year ago, we had mist in the morning with more sun in the afternoon. The high last year was 60 degrees. The record high of 81 was set in 1979. 0.2 inches of snow fell back in 1926.❄
Tonight is the virtual Pine Bush Dinner 🦋 but the lasagna is never the same and I’m not a big fan of listening 👂🏻 to the program over the phone 📱. I guess I could get internet 💻 at home but so be it. I don’t mind driving 🚘 down to the library and many days I can just work using my phone if things aren’t too data intensive. 📶 And when the weather is nice, camp ⛺ and travel.
Solar noon 🌞 is at 12:41 pm with sun having an altitude of 36.5° from the due south horizon (-34.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 8.1 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour 🏅 starts at 5:25 pm with the sun in the west-southwest (249°). 📸 The sunset is in the west-southwest (256°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 6:04 pm after setting for 3 minutes with dusk around 6:31 pm, which is one minute and 31 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 At dusk you’ll see the First Quarter 🌓 Moon in the south-southwest (197°) at an altitude of 22° from the horizon, 233,099 miles away. 🚀 The best time to look at the stars is after 7:06 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies 🌄 and temperatures around 72 degrees. The dew point will be 61 degrees. There will be a south breeze at 10 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 46 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 43 seconds over yesterday.
Tonight will have a slight chance of showers between 11pm and midnight. Mostly cloudy 🌧, with a low of 55 degrees at 6am. 17 degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around September 8th. Maximum dew point of 61 at 6pm. South wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 20%. In 2019, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 43 degrees. The record low of 20 occurred back in 1959.
A picture perfect weekend on tap. 😎 Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 66. Maximum dew point of 57 at 10am. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 52. Typical average high for the weekend is 57 degrees.
I am thinking maybe I should take a long weekend out of town 🤔 maybe leaving Thursday morning based on the forecast but I don’t know. I feel like I just was camping. Where to go next? Truth be told if I do head out of town I’ll probably spend more time fielding calls and doing work then having fun out in the woods although I had a good week last weekend.
As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Day After Election Day 🛀 when the sun will be setting at 4:44 pm with dusk at 5:13 pm (Standard Time). On that day in 2019, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 51 and 29 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 53 degrees. We hit a record high of 76 back in 1994.
